Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Treasurer. Treasurer, your government has a productivity problem and a worsening cost-of-living crisis. Every dollar invested in Australian health and medical research yields close to $4 for the Australian economy. Without giving this place a shopping list of other economic data, does the government, in their forthcoming budget, plan to invest more in medical and scientific research, recognising both the productivity dividend and the positive effect it would have on the nation's health?

Jim Chalmers (Rankin, Australian Labor Party, Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thanks to the honourable member for Kooyong for her question. This government are very enthusiastic, very substantial investors in research, including medical research. I pay tribute to my colleague here and thank him for a number of conversations we've had in the lead-up to the budget in May about this really important question, because we do understand, we do appreciate, the link between good research and better outcomes when it comes to productivity and a stronger economy more broadly. And our colleague in the other place, Minister Ayres, has received and now released some good work that we had done when it comes to the future of research and development, and obviously the Medical Research Fund is part of our thinking in that regard. We're going to work through the recommendations of that report and make our views known in due course. But I assure the member, as I have on other occasions as well, that we're enthusiastic supporters of and investors in medical research.

When it comes to productivity—the beginning of her question—it's important to remember that we've had a productivity challenge in our economy for the last couple of decades now, not just the last couple of years. In fact, over the last year productivity was one per cent through the year, annual. That's above the 20-year average, but it's still not good enough. Market sector productivity was 1½ in the most recent data. That means it's grown for five quarters in a row. But, again, we need to do much better to deliver the higher living standards that our people need and deserve. So I assure the honourable member that, as we work through these issues with productivity, as we work through the report on research and development, that will continue to play an important role in the ambitious productivity agenda we already have rolling out and also in the additional steps we're considering between now and the May budget.